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Al-Qaeda
al-Qaeda is an Islamist terrorist organization founded in August 1988 by Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam in Afghanistan. The goal of al-Qaeda is to carry out attacks against "infidels" (non-Muslims, Shi'ite Muslims, and moderate Muslims), and they carry out terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets to achieve their goals. Their 9/11 attacks on the United States led to the start of the War on Terror, and they have been hunted down by several countries across the world. History ]] ]]Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, radical Islamism grew rapidly as many Muslim clerics preached for Islamic revolution across the world. Islamic men were inspired to wage jihad (holy war) against enemies of Islam, which were namely the United States and Israel, according to the Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In the 1980s, Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden headed to Afghanistan and funded the Mujahideen, who fought against the Soviet Union-backed communist government. In August of 1988, Osama and Abdullah Azzam founded al-Qaeda ("the base"), whose goal was to eradicate the enemies of Islam, starting by destroying the Jewish state of Israel. In 1990, he declared war on the United States after Kuwait passed him over with the US for assistance in defending their country during the Gulf War with Iraq. Osama carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, the 2000 USS Cole bombing, and the 2001 9/11 attacks. The 9/11 attacks led to the world hunting down al-Qaeda, as they were now a threat to global security. al-Qaeda was extremely dangerous in that they operated in every country among the Muslim population, and they were able to spread propaganda through their magazine "Inspire" and other sources of media. They gathered a large following in Afghanistan, and later spread operations to Iraq and Pakistan. The United States gathered a coalition and invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and they overthrew al-Qaeda's Taliban allies. al-Qaeda was defeated by the time that the US left Afghanistan in 2014, with only 40 members left. The US also invaded Iraq with a coalition in 2003, and they managed to kill a large amount of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) members. The US used drone strikes against al-Qaeda in Pakistan, and weakened them there as the Pakistani Army fought al-Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan allies of al-Qaeda. al-Qaeda later branched out to Yemen, Somalia, and the Maghreb, areas that the US did not invade. They had 800 people in the Maghreb, 7,000 people in Somalia, and 1,000 in Arabia. There were also 300 in India and 6,115 in Syria, and their number in Syria grew during the Syrian Civil War. al-Qaeda launched more terrorist attacks in the 2000s and 2010s, but no major ones hit the United States thanks to the efforts of the TSA, CIA, and FBI. Al-Qaeda was gradually hunted down, and in 2011, Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by the Navy SEALs. However, they increased their strength in Syria and Yemen as the governments collapsed in civil wars. al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate group declared itself the "Islamic State" in June 2014, and they were so cruel that al-Qaeda disassociated themselves from the Islamic State. al-Qaeda, however, resumed its campaign of terrorism. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was responsible for many car bombings and suicide bombings in Yemen during the Yemeni Revolution and Sa'dah War, and in January 2015 Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi killed 12 people in Paris in their name. However, it soon became apparent that al-Qaeda was being overshadowed as the dominant terrorist group. al-Qaeda in Iraq morphed into the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006 and then into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in 2013 when the Syrian Civil War allowed for Iraqi jihadists to export the jihad to Syria. al-Qaeda formed the al-Nusra Front in Syria in addition to helping ISIS in growing, but al-Qaeda later disowned ISIS due to its excessive violence. al-Qaeda was opposed to killing women and children and did not want to kill fellow Muslims, but ISIS was far more violent, engaging in blind attacks across many countries that killed Muslims and nonbelievers alike. In June 2015, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria declared itself "the Islamic State", a caliphate that ruled from Mosul and al-Raqqah. al-Qaeda declared war on ISIS, and the al-Nusra Front refused to join ISIS like former al-Qaeda affiliates Boko Haram, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Abu Sayyaf did. al-Nusra waged war on ISIS, and ISIS became the main scapegoat for Islamist terrorist attacks afterwards. These included the 2015 Thalys attack, the shooting-down of Metrojet Flight 9268, and the November 2015 Paris attacks, and al-Qaeda was no longer the largest threat to world security. Instead, the group focused its attacks on Muslim countries, rarely operating outside of the Muslim World. Gallery 911 hijackers.png|A group of 9/11 hijackers meeting in 2001 911 hijackers 2.png|A hijacker instructing other terrorists on melee combat AQI.png|Flag of al-Qaeda in Iraq Iraqi insurgents Baghdad.png|al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters during the Iraq War Nusra.png|Flag of the al-Nusra Front Cheering Nusra.png|al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front supporters in Syria Category:Terrorism Category:Organizations Category:Terrorist groups Category:Jihadist groups